- Doğa Başkan, a reporter for the Turkish daily Evrensel, has been jailed pending trial on a charge of "publicly disseminating misleading information" over a news report that was briefly published on the newspaper's website before being removed.
- The newspaper's lawyer, İlke Işık, said the prosecution's investigation file itself confirmed that the report was no longer available on the website, yet the court still ordered Başkan's pretrial detention.
Büşra Genel
An investigation has been launched against Evrensel reporter Doğa Başkan on a charge of "publicly disseminating misleading information" over a news report that was mistakenly published on the newspaper's website for a short time before being removed.
As part of the investigation, Başkan went to the Ankara Press Crimes Prosecutor's Office with his lawyers on Thursday morning to give a statement. He was later brought before a court, which ordered his pretrial detention under Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code, the provision criminalizing the public dissemination of misleading information.
Speaking to MLSA, Evrensel lawyer İlke Işık said there was no concrete evidence supporting the accusation.
"We are faced with a case in which the legal requirements of Article 217/A have not been met. A young journalist has been jailed over a news report that does not exist. Even if the report had remained published, it did not contain any information that could be considered misleading to the public," Işık said.
Prosecutor and judge ask journalist to reveal source
Işık said the detention was an attempt to obstruct journalists' right to report the news. She said both the prosecutor and the judge at the Criminal Judgeship of Peace asked Doğa Başkan to identify the source of the news report during his questioning, but Başkan declined to reveal it.
She said Başkan voluntarily appeared to give his statement two days after learning of the investigation and that his home address was well known to the authorities.
"Despite the fact that there was clearly no risk of him fleeing, a detention order was issued. This is an act of intimidation," Işık said.
Işık also stressed that the prosecution's investigation file itself included statements confirming that the news report was not available on the newspaper's website.
"A detention order was issued over a news report that does not exist," she said.
